November 17, 2023
QUOTE
As I looked out into the night sky, across all those infinite stars, it made me realize how insignificant they are.
--Peter Cook
BIRTHDAYS
1916 – Shelby Foote, Historian and author
1925 – Rock Hudson, Actor
1937 – Peter Cook, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter
1944 – Danny DeVito, Actor, director, and producer
1951 – Stephen Root, Actor
IN MEMORY
1600 – Kuki Yoshitaka, Japanese commander
1776 – James Ferguson, Scottish astronomer and instrument maker
1990 – Robert Hofstadter, Physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1998 – Esther Rolle, Actress
IN ON THIS DAY
1183 – Genpei War: The Battle of Mizushima takes place off the Japanese coast, where Minamoto no Yoshinaka’s invasion force is intercepted and defeated by the Taira clan.
1800 – The United States Congress holds its first session in Washington, D.C.
1858 – The city of Denver, Colorado is founded.
1947 – The Screen Actors Guild implements an anti-Communist loyalty oath.
1968 – Viewers of the Raiders–Jets football game in the eastern United States are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U.S.